Lead Software Engineer, Backend

At DraftKings, AI is becoming an integral part of both our present and future, powering how work gets done today, guiding smarter decisions, and sparking bold ideas. It's transforming how we enhance customer experiences, streamline operations, and unlock new possibilities. Our teams are energized by innovation and readily embrace emerging technology. We're not waiting for the future to arrive. We're shaping it, one bold step at a time. To those who see AI as a driver of progress, come build the future together.
The Crown Is Yours
As a Lead Software Engineer on the Sportsbook Merchandising team at DraftKings, you'll play a key role in powering real-time features that enhance our Sportsbook experience. This is a high-impact role for a backend-leaning engineer based in Canada, ideal for someone who thrives at the intersection of technical leadership and emerging people management. You'll help shape a high-performing team while influencing systems, processes, and culture at scale.
In this role, you'll lead engineering strategy and execution across major systems and services while developing your coaching, stakeholder alignment, and delivery planning capabilities. If you're looking to move toward formal people leadership, this role offers the foundation to get there - with autonomy, support, and impact.
What you'll do as a Lead Software Engineer

• Own the technical roadmap and execution across your team's services - from architecture and planning through delivery, operations, and scaling
• Lead technical discussions across teams, represent your services in architectural forums, and drive cross-functional decision-making
• Balance hands-on contribution with team enablement - writing code where needed while coaching others and growing their technical ownership
• Drive engineering excellence through robust testing, high-quality code reviews, rollback readiness, observability, and documentation
• Collaborate with Product Managers and stakeholders to align technical efforts with customer value and business outcomes
• Guide backlog planning, identify key workstreams, and ensure alignment between engineering capacity and roadmap goals
• Integrate AI and developer tooling to improve development velocity, testing rigor, and team productivity
• Foster a culture of accountability, feedback, and continuous improvement - across code, systems, and processes

What you'll bring

• Proven track record leading backend engineering initiatives across architecture, development, and operations
• Strong experience in C# or Java, with a solid foundation in distributed systems and backend architecture
• Familiarity with full-stack technologies including .NET, React, Redux, and Node.js
• Expertise in messaging and data systems like Kafka, SQL/NoSQL, MongoDB, RabbitMQ, and S3
• Experience working with cloud-native infrastructure in AWS and GCP
• Hands-on proficiency with containerization technologies like Kubernetes and Docker
• Strong testing, debugging, and incident response capabilities across the stack
• Effective communication skills with the ability to align teams, simplify complexity, and represent technical decisions to diverse stakeholders
• Demonstrated passion for mentorship, team growth, and emerging people leadership
• Experience working on real-time, high-scale consumer systems

Join Our Team
We're a publicly traded (NASDAQ: DKNG) technology company headquartered in Boston. As a regulated gaming company, you may be required to obtain a gaming license issued by the appropriate state agency as a condition of employment. Don't worry, we'll guide you through the process if this is relevant to your role.